The invention concerns a device for reliably covering air vents in special-purpose vehicles, with parallel strips of L-shaped or S-shaped structural section.
Special-purpose vehicles, which are employed for what is called off-road operation, usually have their engine space and cooling system encapsulated to prevent the vehicle from breaking down due to damage to those components resulting from the entry of foreign bodies. The engine is usually supplied with combustion air and cooling air through protective grating systems. The engine spaces usually have two gratings, one for incoming air and one for outgoing air, with a ventilator suctioning in the requisite volume of air at the air-supply point (intake grating) and the used air flowing out freely in the vicinity of the outlet grating.
Protective mechanisms of this type demand that the overall system be open enough to allow an adequate air flow and that the air channels will be structured to reliably prevent foreign bodies from entering.
The use of grating systems in the manufacture of motor vehicles is known, from German OS No. 2 206 754 for example. V-shaped or S-shaped structural sections are employed. The known gratings, however, have a drawback in that foreign bodies can still get in, depending on what direction they come from. It is also possible for the foreign bodies to enter not as complete wholes, but subsequent to breaking up on impact in the first part of the grating. It is also occasionally possible for splinters to travel through the air channel and damage the downstream components of the machine.